Melanie's small parlor looked as serene as it usually did on nights when Frank and Ashley were away and the women gathered together to sew.The room was warm and cheerful in the firelight.The lamp on the table shed a quiet yellow glow on the four smooth heads bent to their needlework.Four skirts billowed modestly,eight small feet were daintily placed on low hassocks.The quiet breathing of Wade,Ella and Beau came through the open door of the nursery.Archie sat on a stool by the hearth,his back against the fireplace,his cheek distended with tobacco,whittling industriously on a bit of wood.The contrast between the dirty,hairy old man and the four neat,fastidious ladies was as great as though he were a grizzled,vicious old watchdog and they four small kittens.
Melanie's soft voice,tinged with indignation,went on and on as she told of the recent outburst of temperament on the part of the Lady Harpists.Unable to agree with the Gentlemen's Glee Club as to the program for their next recital,the ladies had waited on Melanie that afternoon and announced their intention of withdrawing completely from the Musical Circle.It had taken all of Melanie's diplomacy to persuade them to defer their decision.
Scarlett,overwrought,could have screamed:“Oh,damn the Lady Harpists!”She wanted to talk about her dreadful experience.She was bursting to relate it in detail,so she could ease her own fright by frightening the others.She wanted to tell how brave she had been,just to assure herself by the sound of her own words that she had,indeed,been brave.But every time she brought up the subject,Melanie deftly steered the conversation into other and innocuous channels.This irritated Scarlett almost beyond endurance.They were as mean as Frank.
How could they be so calm and placid when she had just escaped so terrible a fate?They weren't even displaying common courtesy in denying her the relief of talking about it.
The events of the afternoon had shaken her more than she cared to admit,even to herself.Every time she thought of that malignant black face peering at her from the shadows of the twilight forest road,she fell to trembling.When she thought of the black hand at her bosom and what would have happened if Big Sam had not appeared,she bent her head lower and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.The longer she sat silent in the peaceful room,trying to sew,listening to Melanie's voice,the tighter her nerves stretched.She felt that at any moment she would actually hear them break with the same pinging sound a banjo string makes when it snaps.
Archie's whittling annoyed her and she frowned at him.Suddenly it seemed odd that he should be sitting there occupying himself with a piece of wood.Usually he lay flat on the sofa,during the evenings when he was on guard,and slept and snored so violently that his long beard leaped into the air with each rumbling breath.It was odder still that neither Melanie nor India hinted to him that he should spread a paper on the floor to catch his litter of shavings.He had already made a perfect mess on the hearth rug but they did not seem to have noticed it.
While she watched him,Archie turned suddenly toward the fire and spat a stream of tobacco juice on it with such vehemence that India,Melanie and Pitty leaped as though a bomb had exploded.
“Need you expectorate so loudly?”cried India in a voice that cracked with nervous annoyance.Scarlett looked at her in surprise for India was always so self-contained.
Archie gave her look for look.
“I reckon I do,”he answered coldly and spat again.Melanie gave a little frowning glance at India.
“I was always so glad dear Papa didn't chew,”began Pitty,and Melanie,her frown creasing deeper,swung on her and spoke sharper words than Scarlett had ever heard her speak.
“Oh,do hush,Auntie!You're so tactless.”
“Oh,dear!”Pitty dropped her sewing in her lap and her mouth pursed up in hurt.“I declare,I don't know what ails you all tonight.You and India are just as jumpy and cross as two old sticks.”
No one answered her.Melanie did not even apologize for her crossness but went back to her sewing with small violence.
“You're taking stitches an inch long,”declared Pitty with some satisfaction.“You'll have to take every one of them out.What's the matter with you?”
But Melanie still did not answer.
Was there anything the matter with them,Scarlett wondered?Had she been too absorbed with her own fears to notice?Yes,despite Melanie's attempts to make the evening appear like any one of fifty they had all spent together,there was a difference in the atmosphere,a nervousness that could not be altogether due to their alarm and shock at what had happened that afternoon.Scarlett stole glances at her companions and intercepted a look from India.It discomforted her because it was a long measuring glance that carried in its cold depths something stronger than hate,something more insulting than contempt.
“As though she thought I was to blame for what happened,”Scarlett thought indignantly.
India turned from her to Archie and,all annoyance at him gone from her face,gave him a look of veiled anxious inquiry.But he did not meet her eyes.He did however look at Scarlett,staring at her in the same cold hard way India had done.